Reproducibility Instructions
This report narrates the manipulations of the NLSY97 dataset in preparing it for longitudinal modeling.
Warning: there is no package called 'markdown'Data Retrieval
Using NLS Investigator a list of variables was downloaded from NLS datasets. All the downloaded materials were unzipped into the folder /Data/Extracts/NLSY97_Religiosity_20042014, located in the GitHub Repository. (The naming convention is “Study_Focus_DDMMYYYofDownload”)
The downloaded zip.forlder included:
NLSY97_Religiosity_20042014.cdb - codebook containing item descriptions
NLSY97_Religiosity_20042014.csv - data in comma delimited format
NLSY97_Religiosity_20042014.NLSY97 - tagset, the list of variables in the downloaded dataset
NLSY97_Religiosity_20042014.dtc - STATA dictionary file of selected variables, contains data as well
We import the raw data of NLSY97 from .csv file and make initial clean up.
The STATA dictionary file printed below lists the selected variables : unique NLSY97 reference numbers (RNUM) are paired wtih their descriptive labels (VARIABLE TITLE).
Selected variables
RNUM VARIABLE_TITLE
1 R0323900 # DAYS/WK TYP FAM RELIGIOUS 1997
2 R2165200 # DAYS/WK TYP FAM RELIGIOUS 1998
3 R3483100 # DAYS/WK TYP FAM RELIGIOUS 1999
4 R4881300 # DAYS/WK TYP FAM RELIGIOUS 2000
5 S2977900 CURRENTLY HAVE ACCESS TO INTERNET? (SAQ) 2003
6 S4676700 CURRENTLY HAVE ACCESS TO INTERNET? (SAQ) 2004
7 S6308900 CURRENTLY HAVE ACCESS TO INTERNET? (SAQ) 2005
8 S8329800 CURRENTLY HAVE ACCESS TO INTERNET? (SAQ) 2006
9 T0737600 CURRENTLY HAVE ACCESS TO INTERNET? (SAQ) 2007
10 T2779700 CURRENTLY HAVE ACCESS TO INTERNET? (SAQ) 2008
11 T4494400 CURRENTLY HAVE ACCESS TO INTERNET? (SAQ) 2009
12 T6141400 CURRENTLY HAVE ACCESS TO INTERNET? (SAQ) 2010
13 T7635300 CURRENTLY HAVE ACCESS TO INTERNET? (SAQ) 2011
14 R1193900 CV_AGE(MONTHS)_INT_DATE 1997
15 R2553400 CV_AGE(MONTHS)_INT_DATE 1998
16 R3876200 CV_AGE(MONTHS)_INT_DATE 1999
17 R5453600 CV_AGE(MONTHS)_INT_DATE 2000
18 R7215900 CV_AGE(MONTHS)_INT_DATE 2001
19 S1531300 CV_AGE(MONTHS)_INT_DATE 2002
20 S2000900 CV_AGE(MONTHS)_INT_DATE 2003
21 S3801000 CV_AGE(MONTHS)_INT_DATE 2004
22 S5400900 CV_AGE(MONTHS)_INT_DATE 2005
23 S7501100 CV_AGE(MONTHS)_INT_DATE 2006
24 T0008400 CV_AGE(MONTHS)_INT_DATE 2007
25 T2011000 CV_AGE(MONTHS)_INT_DATE 2008
26 T3601400 CV_AGE(MONTHS)_INT_DATE 2009
27 T5201300 CV_AGE(MONTHS)_INT_DATE 2010
28 T6651200 CV_AGE(MONTHS)_INT_DATE 2011
29 R1194100 CV_AGE_INT_DATE 1997
30 R2553500 CV_AGE_INT_DATE 1998
31 R3876300 CV_AGE_INT_DATE 1999
32 R5453700 CV_AGE_INT_DATE 2000
33 R7216000 CV_AGE_INT_DATE 2001
34 S1531400 CV_AGE_INT_DATE 2002
35 S2001000 CV_AGE_INT_DATE 2003
36 S3801100 CV_AGE_INT_DATE 2004
37 S5401000 CV_AGE_INT_DATE 2005
38 S7501200 CV_AGE_INT_DATE 2006
39 T0008500 CV_AGE_INT_DATE 2007
40 T2011100 CV_AGE_INT_DATE 2008
41 T3601500 CV_AGE_INT_DATE 2009
42 T5201400 CV_AGE_INT_DATE 2010
43 T6651300 CV_AGE_INT_DATE 2011
44 R1235800 CV_SAMPLE_TYPE 1997
45 S0919700 GOD NOTHING TO DO HAPPENS TO R 2002
46 S6317100 GOD NOTHING TO DO HAPPENS TO R 2005
47 T2782200 GOD NOTHING TO DO HAPPENS TO R 2008
48 T7637800 GOD NOTHING TO DO HAPPENS TO R 2011
49 R4893900 HOW OFT R BEEN HAPPY PERSON 2000
50 S0921100 HOW OFT R BEEN HAPPY PERSON 2002
51 S4682200 HOW OFT R BEEN HAPPY PERSON 2004
52 S8332600 HOW OFT R BEEN HAPPY PERSON 2006
53 T2782900 HOW OFT R BEEN HAPPY PERSON 2008
54 T6144000 HOW OFT R BEEN HAPPY PERSON 2010
55 R4893600 HOW OFT R BEEN NERVOUS PERSON 2000
56 S0920800 HOW OFT R BEEN NERVOUS PERSON 2002
57 S4681900 HOW OFT R BEEN NERVOUS PERSON 2004
58 S8332300 HOW OFT R BEEN NERVOUS PERSON 2006
59 T2782600 HOW OFT R BEEN NERVOUS PERSON 2008
60 T6143700 HOW OFT R BEEN NERVOUS PERSON 2010
61 R4893700 HOW OFT R CALM/PEACEFUL PAST MO 2000
62 S0920900 HOW OFT R CALM/PEACEFUL PAST MO 2002
63 S4682000 HOW OFT R CALM/PEACEFUL PAST MO 2004
64 S8332400 HOW OFT R CALM/PEACEFUL PAST MO 2006
65 T2782700 HOW OFT R CALM/PEACEFUL PAST MO 2008
66 T6143800 HOW OFT R CALM/PEACEFUL PAST MO 2010
67 R4894000 HOW OFT R DEPRESSED LAST MONTH 2000
68 S0921200 HOW OFT R DEPRESSED LAST MONTH 2002
69 S4682300 HOW OFT R DEPRESSED LAST MONTH 2004
70 S8332700 HOW OFT R DEPRESSED LAST MONTH 2006
71 T2783000 HOW OFT R DEPRESSED LAST MONTH 2008
72 T6144100 HOW OFT R DEPRESSED LAST MONTH 2010
73 R4893800 HOW OFT R FELT DOWN OR BLUE 2000
74 S0921000 HOW OFT R FELT DOWN OR BLUE 2002
75 S4682100 HOW OFT R FELT DOWN OR BLUE 2004
76 S8332500 HOW OFT R FELT DOWN OR BLUE 2006
77 T2782800 HOW OFT R FELT DOWN OR BLUE 2008
78 T6143900 HOW OFT R FELT DOWN OR BLUE 2010
79 R0552400 HOW OFTEN PR CHURCH LAST YR? 1997
80 R4893400 HOW OFTEN R ATTEND WORSHIP SERV 2000
81 R6520100 HOW OFTEN R ATTEND WORSHIP SERV 2001
82 S0919300 HOW OFTEN R ATTEND WORSHIP SERV 2002
83 S2987800 HOW OFTEN R ATTEND WORSHIP SERV 2003
84 S4681700 HOW OFTEN R ATTEND WORSHIP SERV 2004
85 S6316700 HOW OFTEN R ATTEND WORSHIP SERV 2005
86 S8331500 HOW OFTEN R ATTEND WORSHIP SERV 2006
87 T0739400 HOW OFTEN R ATTEND WORSHIP SERV 2007
88 T2781700 HOW OFTEN R ATTEND WORSHIP SERV 2008
89 T4495000 HOW OFTEN R ATTEND WORSHIP SERV 2009
90 T6143400 HOW OFTEN R ATTEND WORSHIP SERV 2010
91 T7637300 HOW OFTEN R ATTEND WORSHIP SERV 2011
92 S1225400 HRS/WK R USES A COMPUTER 2002
93 T1049900 HRS/WK R USES A COMPUTER 2007
94 T3145100 HRS/WK R USES A COMPUTER 2008
95 T4565400 HRS/WK R USES A COMPUTER 2009
96 T6209600 HRS/WK R USES A COMPUTER 2010
97 T7707000 HRS/WK R USES A COMPUTER 2011
98 S1225500 HRS/WK R WATCHES TELEVISION 2002
99 T1050000 HRS/WK R WATCHES TELEVISION 2007
100 T3145200 HRS/WK R WATCHES TELEVISION 2008
101 T4565500 HRS/WK R WATCHES TELEVISION 2009
102 T6209700 HRS/WK R WATCHES TELEVISION 2010
103 T7707100 HRS/WK R WATCHES TELEVISION 2011
104 T2782400 IMPORT OF RELIGIOUS FAITH IN DAILY LIFE 2008
105 T7638000 IMPORT OF RELIGIOUS FAITH IN DAILY LIFE 2011
106 R0536401 KEY!BDATE M/Y (SYMBOL) 1997
107 R0536402 KEY!BDATE M/Y (SYMBOL) 1997
108 R1482600 KEY!RACE_ETHNICITY (SYMBOL) 1997
109 R0536300 KEY!SEX (SYMBOL) 1997
110 R0000100 PUBID - YTH ID CODE 1997
111 T2111500 R A BORN-AGAIN EVANGELICAL CHRISTIAN? 2008
112 T6759400 R A BORN-AGAIN EVANGELICAL CHRISTIAN? 2011
113 S0919600 R ASKS GOD HELP MAKE DECISIONS 2002
114 S6317000 R ASKS GOD HELP MAKE DECISIONS 2005
115 T2782100 R ASKS GOD HELP MAKE DECISIONS 2008
116 T7637700 R ASKS GOD HELP MAKE DECISIONS 2011
117 S0919500 R BELIEVE RELIG TEACHINGS OBEYED 2002
118 S6316900 R BELIEVE RELIG TEACHINGS OBEYED 2005
119 T2782000 R BELIEVE RELIG TEACHINGS OBEYED 2008
120 T7637600 R BELIEVE RELIG TEACHINGS OBEYED 2011
121 S5532800 R CURR REL PREF 2005
122 T2111400 R CURR REL PREF 2008
123 T6759300 R CURR REL PREF 2011
124 S0919400 R NOT NEED RELIGION TO HAVE VALUES 2002
125 S6316800 R NOT NEED RELIGION TO HAVE VALUES 2005
126 T2781900 R NOT NEED RELIGION TO HAVE VALUES 2008
127 T7637500 R NOT NEED RELIGION TO HAVE VALUES 2011
128 S0919800 R PRAYS MORE THAN ONCE A DAY 2002
129 S6317200 R PRAYS MORE THAN ONCE A DAY 2005
130 T2782300 R PRAYS MORE THAN ONCE A DAY 2008
131 T7637900 R PRAYS MORE THAN ONCE A DAY 2011
132 R0552300 WHAT IS PR CURR RELIG PREF? 1997
133 R0552200 WHAT RELIG PR RAISED IN? 1997After renaming the variables, we arrange data in a initial wide format (variable-occasions as column), arriving at the basis dataset dsSource, which contains
ncol(dsSource)[1] 133observations and
nrow(dsSource)[1] 8984respondents.
Dictionary file is imported into Excel file “ItemMapping_20042014.xlsx”, where variables are renamed and organized with respect to occasssions of their measurement. The result is Variable-by-occasion databox slice.
Databox, VO-slice of the selected variables
Variables on vertical dimension and occasions on horizontal intersect over grey-filled boxes displaying the year of the wave for which data are available. Variable attend is marked by red to indicate that it is the primary quantification of religiosity in the statistical models used in this study.
The variable dimension of the databox slice is represented by three identifiers adjacent to the left of the grid.
- Variable Title - verbatim identifier from NLSY97
- Unit - describes the scales used to measure variables
- Codename - the (new) name of the variable, as it is used in R code
Religiosity, Context, and Covariates
The light grey background highlights the variables related to religion and spirituality. The first section of items (attendPR, relprefPR, relraisedPR) gives data on the religiosity of parents of the respondents, whose households were sampled into NLSY97. Another grey section lists the items related to the religiosity of the youth, which give data on their religious behaviors (relpref, attend, pray, decisions) and attitudes (values, todo, obeyed, bornagain, faith).
Context variables and covariates are on white background. The top section gives basic demographics: the month (bmonth) and year (byear) of birth, sex (sex), race (race), as well as the indicator whether the individual is a member of the cross-sectional sampling or a special oversample of minorities (sample). Two age variables are located between the religiosity sections: age at the time of the interview in months (agemon) and years (ageyear). At the bottom are self-reports on emotional wellbeing (calm, blue, happy, depressed, nervous) and media activities (internet, computer, tv) of respondents.
To review original questionnaire cards of NLSY97 as well as descriptive statistics for the selected variables see the Interactive version
Clean dataset
This databox slice corresponds to the dataset dsL
which transposes the former, distributing variables on the horizontal axis. Variable year keeps track of measurement round and separated two kinds of variables: those, which values do not change with time and those that were measured at multiple occasions. This distinction will be of convenience in later discussion of statistical models. The dataset in figure 3.3 is referred to as dsL throughout this work and the accompanying R code . It defines the scope of NLSY97 data used in the current study and has a direct correspondence to the databox slice from figure 3.2. While other variables of interest might be added in course or reproduction of this research, it is useful to think of such dataset as a midway point between raw data and model-specific datasets
Factor labels
In graph production with R, the scale of the variables is indicative of mapping fucntion applied to it. Therefore it is frequently of great convenience to
Finally, we output the created clean dataset dsL as a .cvs file. Also, it is saved in an .rds format, native to R.
pathdsL <- file.path(getwd(),"Data/Derived/dsL.csv")
write.csv(dsL,pathdsL, row.names=FALSE)
pathOutputSubject <- file.path(pathDir,"Data/Derived/dsL.rds")
saveRDS(object=dsL, file=pathOutputSubject, compress="xz")
###########################Additional considerations
Working with NLS Investigator
To explore the variables in the native context of NLS, go to NLS Investigator (you will have to register a free account with them to keep track of you progress), select “NLYS97 1997-2011” in the first dropdown box and then click on “Choose File” under “Upload Tagset.” Select the file “NLSY97_Religiosity_20042014.NLSY97” from the folder “/Documentation/data/NLSY97_Religiosity_20042014”, in the GitHub repository. All the variables from this extract will be loaded into NLS Web Investigator.
Alternatively, one can locate the particular item of interest by copying and pasting its “Variable Title” it into “Word in Title” search line of the NLS Investigator, as indicated in the graphic below.
On age, cohorts, and waves
NLSY97 sample includes individuals from five cohorts, born between 1980 and 1984.The following graphics shows how birth cohort, age of respondents, and round of observation are related in NSLY97. 
There are several indicators of age in NSLY97 that vary in precision. Birth cohort is the most general one, it was recorded once. Two variables were recorded at each interview: age at the time of the interview in months (agemon) and years (ageyear). Those are not derivatives of each other, but, understandably, are closely related. The variable ageyear records the full number of years a respondent reached at the time of the interview. Due to difficulties of administering the survey, time intervals between the waves could differ.
dsLCM<-dsL[dsL$year %in% c(2000:2011),c('id',"byear","year","attend","ageyear","agemon")]
ds<- dsLCM[dsLCM$id %in% c(25),]
ds$age<-ds$year-ds$byear
ds$ageALT<- ds$agemon/12
print(ds) id byear year attend ageyear agemon age ageALT
364 25 1983 2000 5 17 214 17 17.83
365 25 1983 2001 7 18 226 18 18.83
366 25 1983 2002 7 19 236 19 19.67
367 25 1983 2003 2 21 254 20 21.17
368 25 1983 2004 7 21 261 21 21.75
369 25 1983 2005 5 22 272 22 22.67
370 25 1983 2006 7 23 284 23 23.67
371 25 1983 2007 5 24 295 24 24.58
372 25 1983 2008 7 25 307 25 25.58
373 25 1983 2009 7 26 319 26 26.58
374 25 1983 2010 7 27 332 27 27.67
375 25 1983 2011 7 28 342 28 28.50For example, for one person id=25 the age was recorded as 21 years for both 2003 and 2004 (see ageyear). However, when you examine age in months (agemon) you can see this is rounding issue that disappears once a more precise scale is used. To avoid this potentially confusing peculiarity, age in years will be either calculated as computed as (age = year - byear) or as (ageALT = agemon/12).